Bitcoin Isn’t Money And It Isn’t Mining Either

I have often wondered how much value has been conferred on Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies simply because they are referred to as Digital Money? I wrote about that in “Would Bitcoin by Another Name Smell as Sweet?” I do think we automatically confer properties on Crypto because they are called currencies, even though they don’t necessarily exhibit those properties, or not more so than other “assets”.

If I have a brokerage account at Interactive Brokers or thinkorswim (which is now part of TD Ameritrade) or any other broker allows me to buy and sell futures, I can make Brent Crude into “money” as easily as I can turn Bitcoin into “money”.

Purists will argue that isn’t the case because of the blockchain technology driving Bitcoin, and there is some truth to that, but for all intents and purposes, it isn’t much harder for me to link a brokerage account to a money market account to a debit account or credit account and turn my “asset of choice” into “money”. While I wouldn’t have blockchain technology and the alleged “anonymity” of Bitcoin (which seems to have been reduced now that taxing authorities are hunting it down), but I would have incredibly strong protection against fraud and manipulation.